Little Canned Men
皮皮鲁与鲁西西之罐头小人
China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 93 mins.
Director: Yu Fei 于飞.
Rating: 6/10.
Fantasy about some micro-people befriending primary-school kids is stronger technically than dramatically.
STORY
Mofang [Rubik’s Cube] city, somewhere in China, c. early 1990s. Lu Xixi (Hong Yuexi) is the top student in her class at Mofang primary school; however, her elder twin brother and classmate, Pipilu (Zhuang Zexi), is a dunce. Both are in their final year at primary school. Their teacher, Xu (Bai Yao), announces that the student with the best marks this term will win the City Achievement Award, ensuring admission to the best junior high school; she hopes that one of her class will win it. Lu Xixi’s main rival is her jealous deskmate, Li Xiaoman (Ren Fei’er). Lu Xixi’s mother (Liu Yiying), who is highly strung due to a stomach complaint, constantly pushes her daughter to study harder and scolds Pipilu for his laziness; the childrens’ father (Tian Yu), who is a middle-ranking editor at a newspaper, is a kindly, unambitious type. At dinner, the mother gives Lu Xixi a can of Russian tinned meat to build up her strength; but when the girl opens it in her room, there’s no meat inside, just five tiny human beings between 6-9 cms tall. Lu Xixi makes clothes for them, and assigns names, that reflect their interests and personalities: from the youngest “Artist” (Yu Shuhao), through scruffy wannabe foreign diplomat “Yuehan”, aka John (Li Haodong), and the academic, bespectacled “PhD” (Wen Chundi), to the military “Captain” (Liu Xiangqing) and the stage-struck “Singer” (Zhu Jintong). Lu Xixi also makes a doll’s house for them to live in, but while she’s at school Pipilu’s street dog gets into her room and starts to destroy it. Later, Lu Xixi tells her brother about the little people, and they try to work out a way for Pipilu to openly keep the dog near their home. At school Lu Xixi’s marks decline because of the time she’s been spending with the little people, and her mother scolds her. But to the amazement of his teacher, Pipilu’s marks suddenly go up, as he’s been smuggling “PhD” into class to help him. Depressed, Lu Xixi gets some emotional support from classmate Wang Zihu (Zhao Yutong), a dunce whose real interest is painting but who is not encouraged by the school. To thank her, Lu Xixi and the little people steal some painting equipment from the school; and Wang Zihu meets the little people who, along with Lu Xixi, help her to get recognition at the school’s art festival. Other pupils, including troublemaker Liang Guo (Zhang Zihao), also meet the little people. When the school announces that pupils who don’t get high marks in the mid-term exam won’t be allowed to take part in school activities, the little people and their friends band together to organise mass cheating during the exam. But then Lu Xixi’s class rival, Li Xiaoman, snitches to the school’s authorities.
REVIEW
A group of micro-people help out a sister and brother at primary school in Little Canned Men 皮皮鲁与鲁西西之罐头小人, a fairly entertaining children’s fantasy in which the visual effects are stronger than the main storyline. Based on two characters in a series of stories by well-known Mainland kids’ author Zheng Yuanjie 郑渊洁, it’s the first directorial outing by Bejing-born Yu Fei 于飞, 41, an erstwhile TVD actor, production exec and writer who also co-penned two online short stories featuring the pesky brother, Pipilu (Taming the Rabbit 驯兔记 and Story Machine 故事贩卖机, both 2018). Pipilu’s younger twin sister, Lu Xixi, is more the main character here, as a super-achiever who finds her position slipping in class; but it’s the micro-people who are the main focus, especially in the convincingly natural way they’re integrated into the human world. Box office was a very mild RMB58 million.
Set in a fictional Mainland city called Mofang 魔方 (literally, “Rubik’s Cube”) around the early 1990s, the plot swiftly establishes itself in the first seven minutes: Lu Xixi is top pupil at her primary school, Pipilu is a dunce with no interest in studying, their mother relentlessly pushes the girl and scolds the boy, the father is kind to both, and Lu Xixi’s main rival in winning a place at the top junior high is her own deskmate. After her mother rewards her with a tin of Russian spam, Lu Xixi finds no meat inside but instead five micro-people (three boys and two girls), whom she promptly makes clothing for and assigns nicknames.
The micro-people, ranging from a child to a young adult, are all basic stereotypes – a studious type (nicknamed “PhD”) with spectacle and a mortar board, to a military/action type (“Captain”) to a wannabe performer in a glamorous dress (“Singer”). Apart from “PhD”, they don’t register much as individuals, more as a group; at the other end of the scale, the adults in the film are equally one-dimensional – a naggy mother, kindly father, stern teacher. The schoolchildren in the middle carry what emotional power the movie has, but their characters are also pretty basic, with only the naughty but likeable Pipilu really registering. The film is at its best when the three groups are interacting, whether at the siblings’ home or during pranks at school, though these are essentially episodes, not part of any larger plan. The only message the film comes up with at the end is that perhaps school marks are not everything in life – though few audiences in China would buy that.
As the two lead kids, Hong Yuexi 洪悦熙 and Zhuang Zexi 庄则熙 are okay, with the slightly more experienced Zhuang more engaging as the pesky brother. As the main adults, Tian Yu 田雨 as the understanding father, Liu Yiying 刘一莹 as the naggy mother and Bai Yao 白瑶 as the stern teacher all give old-style performances, perhaps mimicking those of the era in which the film is set. Zheng himself cameos fleetingly in a scene after the end titles. But it’s the technical team that makes the film what it is, led by the very natural effects work around the mini-people that melds actors against over-sized sets and props with green-screen work that integrates them into live-action footage. Enhancing all this is the variously textured widescreen photography by veteran Hong Kong d.p. Miao Jianhui 缪健辉, with his long experience in genre cinema, and the likeable but low-key score by Hong Kong veteran Jin Peida 金培达 [Peter Kam] and Qi Yanfeng 祁岩峰, who’ve collaborated before. Smooth editing by three cutters includes work by Yuan Shuai 袁帅, who was also the film’s executive director and script planner. The film’s Chinese title means “Pipilu and Lu Xixi: Tinned Little People”.
CREDITS
Presented by Zhejiang Dongyang Haitong Film & TV Culture (CN), Wanda Pictures (CN), Beijing Wishart Media (CN), Beijing Shuyao Culture Communication (CN). Produced by Zhejiang Dongyang Haitong Film & TV Culture (CN).
Script: Yu Fei. Characters: Zheng Yuanjie. Photography: Liao Jianhui. Editing: Huang Qiongyi, Wu Yanqiang, Yuan Shuai. Music supervision: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Music: Qi Yanfeng, Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Art direction: Wang Yuyi. Styling: Duo Chunli. Sound: Gao Xinyu. Action: Yang Wenli. Special effects: Jiang Gangqiang. Visual effects: Lin Jin. Executive direction: Yuan Shuai.
Cast: Tian Yu (father), Zheng Yuanjie (himself, in final scene), Hong Yuexi (Lu Xixi), Zhuang Zexi (Pipilu), Yu Shuyao (“Artist”), Wen Chundi (“PhD”), Liu Xiangqing (“Captain”), Li Haodong (“Yuehan”/John), Zhu Jintong (“Singer”), Liu Yiying (mother), Bai Yao (Xu, class teacher), Ren Fei’er (Li Xiaoman), Zhang Zihao (Liang Guo), Zhao Yutong (Wang Zihu), Wang Weiguo (Chen, headmaster), Gao Yangyang (deputy headmaster), Duan Wei (school administration head), Qiang Junrong (school administrator), Zhao Zibo (Zhao, PE teacher), Wu Lin (Zhang, teacher), Sun Tan (Japanese interpreter).
Release: China, 30 Sep 2021.